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Question on brine

I just bought another trailer from a company around my area. When I was getting ready to leave he noticed my boss sticker under my truck and asked me if I do any brining. I told him no. He said he could build me a rig, show me how to mix and how to apply for around $3,000. Where I live we normally only have 1 good snow storm a year but we do get a lot of ice. I never thought about doing the brine. Can anyone tell me if it is worth it?

I honestly have no clue about brine. That means I don’t know how much it cost to mix or cost to disperse. We have several employees and 2 trucks that can be used. Our main business is lawn care. We started snow removal last year. Like I said, there is plenty of ice around here.

One last thought. I did a search on this subject before I posted this. I found someone who is making a home made rig. People were downing him because of the size of his truck. We run a 2008 Chevy diesel 2500 and a 2004 Chevy 1500. How much area could the 2 trucks brine?

First of all are you talking pre-storm treatment (anti-icing) or using it with salt (pre-wetting)?
We produce brine and blend it with other liquids in our snow and ice operations.
The cost to set-up production is not a whole lot, depending on tank sizes etc. The expensive part for us was the pump (almost $500.00)
Applicating equipment is another story. Our anti-ice unit was almost $5K and our pre-wet systems for our dump trucks are almost $4K each.
I'm assuming that you are talking about using it pre-storm or anti-icing.
In that case your results may not be favorable. We do not anti-ice when events are predicted to begin as rain/freezing rain. The main reason is dilution. What you applied will become so diluted that it too will freeze. It may buy you a very small time window if you can get to your site right away with salt to follow up.
Honestly IMO, pre salt.

Not sure where you are in Indiana, but that doesn't really matter. There is a lot of profit dollars to be made in both liquid and granular applications in any market. Being in Kentucky, our season sounds very similar to your season. A few plowable snows per year, but a lot of opportunities for liquid and or granular applications.

I can tell you that SnowEx has a new brine application tank designed for just the truck size you have. It is available I believe with a 200 or 300 gallon tank. Check with your local SnowEx dealer and they should be able to help you. If not, let me know. I have some information I can send you on that system.

Since you are now involved in the snow & ice management business, you may want to check out something I have available. It's a comprehensive Snow & Ice Management Manual, a CD with several different snow templates including contracts, route sheets, proposals and much more, and a CD called Quick Estimator for Snow & Ice Management. The nice thing about the quick estimator is that it is not software to learn. It's an excel spreadsheet format that you fill in the blanks with your specific job site information and equipment that you will utilize on the job and it calculates per push pricing, seasonal pricing, flat rate pricing, material requirements both liquid and granular, and hand labor if applicable to that job. Being a sponsor of this site, (Profits Unlimited) we have a lot of items that may interest your business.

If you have any questions, feel free to give me a call at 800-845-0499. Being a full service lawn and landscape business myself since 1979, I understand what we all go through on a daily basis.

To be honest with you I have no idea. I know that probably sounds idiotic but its true. All we do is plow and salt. Never thought about brine until the day I spoke with that fellow (about 3 days ago). So, here I am trying to learn about it.

If I am asking the wrong questions please help me ask the right ones. I do not own a fly by night company, we are a very well established and interested in learning more about ice management.